Injury Prevention in New Haven, MO. Whether you’re an athlete and want to improve your performance, or you just retired and want to dedicate your time to being physical fit, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you desire. While our certified New Haven, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others heal after an injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to guide you through exercises that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Request an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or call the location most convenient for you.

Physical activity is an essential part of many New Haven, MO people’s lives. Many of us participate in activities such as playing sports, biking, and more. Furthermore, pursuing an active lifestyle reduces the risk of chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, degenerative brain diseases, depression, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed New Haven, MO physical therapists allow you to return to action as fierce as ever, but our injury prevention experts can help you reduce the risk of further injury by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our treatment plans, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, are proven to be effective and are personalized to each client and the level of activity they want to reach.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a nagging injury that just won’t go away, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in New Haven, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To reduce your chance of an injury and protect your sport or hobby, keep reading or inquire about an appointment today.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in New Haven, MO

Injuries typically happen for one of two reasons:

1. Repetitive motion injuries are injuries that are caused by repetitive movements over time. They are common in overhead athletes athletes who are required to repeat throwing or striking motions, with joint pain usually being the first symptom.
2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include falling or a sudden impact by an object or another person. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some of the injuries we see most frequently, like rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, such as ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, with a sudden impact to the knee.

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in New Haven, MO

While injuries can happen in a variety of circumstances, and some are unpreventable, they generally occur because your soft tissue, bones, and joints cannot handle the force, torque, or stretching that they are subjected to in a given movement or collision. There are three primary causes of why your body cannot adjust to an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to maintaining healthy joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can result in overemphasis for one muscle group, which may cause your body to force it to participate in an activity it shouldn’t. It can also lead to poor posture, and one set of muscles becoming fatigued faster, making them more susceptible to injuries. Injuries can be caused by poor muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong hamstring and weak quadriceps, or within muscle groups, such as an imbalance between the four muscles of the rotator cuff. Muscle imbalance can lead to:

• Muscle weakness
• Muscle inflexibility
• Poor muscle recruitment
• Coordination deficiency

Customized injury prevention with our experienced physical therapists in New Haven, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can impact your stability and lead to your body moving in unnatural ways, causing injury. It can be caused by a range of musculoskeletal issues. It can lead to:

• Joint mobility limitations
• Muscle imbalance
• Poor coordination
• Decreased balance

At our initial injury prevention appointment in New Haven, MO, we’ll go through your medical history and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, in tandem with with your physician or any other providers treating you, we’ll come up with a tailored treatment plan been proven to work by research and studies to get your movement back on track.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people who sit a lot. People who play sports and others with active lifestyles can be affected by postural dysfunction when at lest, using the computer, or in specific positions they need to be in for their sport. Correct posture refers to proper alignments of the neck, torso, pelvis, and extremities in a way that does not remove the spine from its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the joints in the spine closer together, which has a negative affect on our body’s ability to communicate with itself and attain ideal motion health. It can also lead to:

• Muscle weakness
• Muscle imbalance
• Poor positioning
• Joint mobility limitations
• Poor muscle recruitment

By helping you understand the best practices for posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring you are using your muscles equally, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your vertebrae remain in place.

Keys to Injury Prevention in New Haven, MO

All sports and physical activities carry an inherent risk of injury. No one technique is guaranteed to be effective in injury prevention. However, there are things you can do to make sure your body is strong and flexible enough for your intended activity:

• Take breaks — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. If you’re heavily active, one or two rest days a week will signal to your body to engage in its natural healing and recovery processes. If you have a more moderate activity level, take it easy after activity so your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints become too fatigued.
• Use protective equipment — Helmets, shin guards, elbow pads, and other required equipment in many sports can help prevent injuries such as rashes or concussions. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or soft tissue, your New Haven, MO doctor or physical therapist may recommend stabilizing braces or Kinesio Taping®. Other techniques like tying your athletic footwear tightly offers further stabilization.
• Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it stand up to the rigors of heavy activity. Our New Haven, MO injury prevention professionals will work to achieve optimal muscle balance and strengthen the often forgotten muscles needed to be able to stay healthy in the activities you love.
• Boost flexibility — Stretching contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It improves which movements you can make and how far you can extend them, which lets for your tendons and ligaments to handle more forceful positions.
  2. It boosts blood flow, which allows for nutrient-rich blood to flow to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and revitalizing the muscles.
  3. It boosts your posture, which we already know is an is one of the most important factors of injury prevention.

  According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like soccer that require dynamic motions require soft tissue compliant enough to incorporate and exert the high levels of energy required. Also, it’s important to stretch and warm up before games or training to further reduce the risk of injury.

• Use proper technique — In every sport, there is an accepted way to position and move your body. These techniques not only help you get be the best athlete you can be but help prevent injuries. Football players are taught to tackle with the shoulder in order to avoid a head injury, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to make sure their muscles are moving unnaturally. We utilize DorsaVi video motion analysis to slow down your movement and analyze how to improve it.
• Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — If a part of your body is bothering you, that’s your body’s way of telling you something isn’t right. If you feel a sudden crack or grinding sensation, immediately withdraw from the activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body isn’t holing up well in a particularly rigorous training session, don’t force it.
• Don’t play through an injury — Even though teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate an athlete that guts it out through pain, forcing your body to perform with soft tissue or structural damage could make that injury worse and leave you off the field or court for longer than it originally would have. Depending on the nature of your injury, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, seeing your doctor, and a series of physical therapy sessions to make sure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
• Play by the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels in the interest of safety. Penalties for leading with the helmet in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the existence of bike lanes are all rules that leagues enacted to keep players safe. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that violations of those rules are punished.
• Speak a licensed physical therapist — It’s in your best interest to see a doctor before another season begins or starting up a new physical activity. During your visit, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a expert physical therapist in New Haven, MO is a good idea for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven to reduce the risk of injury, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to your age, your injury history, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention for Older New Haven, MO Adults

Falls in the elderly accounted for more than 3 million urgent care visits and over 34,000 fatalities. Studies show that physical activity is invaluable in preventing falls. Other conditions such as arthritis that are wear and tear injuries can be more bearable and take longer to progress with physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints healthy. While the physical demands for older adults may not be as high as an athlete, the same principles of strength, balance, flexibility, and correct posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in New Haven, MO include:

• Physical Therapy Clinic
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Treatment
• Sciatica Treatment
• Sports Medicine
• Hand Pain Physical Therapy
• Foot & Ankle Pain Treatment
• Hip Pain Treatment
• Plantar Fasciitis Treatment
• Stroke Rehabilitation
• Hip Replacement Physical Therapy

New Haven, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in in an activity you prepare and train for and love can create a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same joy. The experienced New Haven, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to guide you through your own personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body prepared for the rigors of physical activity, and your mind confident that you can safely return to the activities you love doing most. We will aid you in feeling the physical and mental health benefits of doing what you do best. Make an appointment online or contact the location nearest you to get started with one of our injury prevention specialists in New Haven, MO.